Note: Javascript is disabled or is not supported by your browser. For this reason, some items on this page will be unavailable. For more information about this message, please visit this page: About CDC.gov.

This project addresses the significant occupational exposure of imaging technologists to risk factors associated with the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The problem is of even greater significance to public health given a shortage of imaging technologists and an increasing demand for scans, thus making the health status of the imaging technologists a critical factor in the availability of healthcare services. The long term goal of this application is to reduce the high incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and physical discomfort experienced by imaging technologists (I-Techs).

A Multi-Site Intervention to Reduce Violence in Hospital Emergency Departments

The purpose of this intervention study is to reduce violence against emergency department workers (ED). The effectiveness of a multi-dimensional intervention will be tested in six hospitals in Ohio and Michigan. The primary aims are to reduce violence from patients and visitors, decrease stress disorder symptoms and loss of productivity after assaults and threats, and increase employees’ feelings of safety and confidence in managing aggressive patients and visitors. This project is responsive to the RFA, Workplace Violence Prevention Research. Because ED violence is a serious problem, this study is essential to advance progress in preventing violence in the healthcare sector. An important element of the project is to sustain the project and develop collaborations among the hospitals and researchers.

Workplace Violence Training for Nurses

Vida Health Communications, LLC will develop a self-paced, web-based workplace violence training package for registered nurses working in a hospital setting. Completion of the package is associated with continuing education credits.

Preventing Blood and Body Fluid Exposures During Surgical Procedures

The effect of surgical team members repeatedly working together on risk of blood and body fluid exposures (BBFE) in the operating room has never before been studied. Understanding the effect of past collaborations and the familiarity among team members it produces has both practical and theoretical implications. A protective effect of past collaborations may suggest that surgical teams be assembled to include members who have previously worked together to some minimum degree, and when this is not possible, to make team members aware that working with others unfamiliar to them raises their risk of BBFE. This may also have implications for training surgical teams as units. The proposed analysis of the role of past collaborations may improve the current understanding of the effect of job tenure on risk of injury outcomes in a variety of settings. That is, working with the same coworkers repeatedly over time may be a social phenomenon that partly explains a protective effect of "experience," which is commonly conceived of as the property of an individual.

Assessment of Exposure to Physical and Non-Physical Violence in Physical Therapy

The purpose of this study is to assess the causes and effects of physical therapists’ exposure to physical and non-physical violence. This application provides the first articulation of exposure to work-related violence in physical therapy practice. The approach to the study uses semi-structured interviews with physical therapists working in multiple settings to gauge their violence exposure and gain insights about the consequences and causes. Information from this project will help the future development of a survey instrument with a comprehensive list of categories of violence and exposure antecedents and outcomes, which then can be used for a broad-based exposure assessment.

Effect of Tool Design on Hand Pain in Dental Practitioners

Dentists and dental hygienists experience elevated rates of musculoskeletal disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, primarily due to the high pinch force required for dental scaling. There is evidence that a lighter and larger diameter tool can significantly reduce the pinch force. This randomized controlled study will determine if dentists or dental hygienists who use such a tool report less hand and arm pain compared to those who continue to use the conventional tool design.

Linking Healthcare Workarounds and Burnout to Patient and Worker Safety

This is a mentored career development award application to develop knowledge and skills in health services management with the objective of integrating occupational health psychology concepts with occupational injuries of healthcare workers and patient safety. The training goals, which will be met through intense mentorship, self-directed readings, coursework, and mentored research experiences are threefold: (1) to increase knowledge of the impact of occupational health outcomes in healthcare contexts, including occupational illnesses and injuries, (2) to receive training in the issues of primary importance for health services management and healthcare quality with particular attention to links between work process and occupational health in healthcare, and (3) to conduct research assists in understanding the extent of consequences of workarounds and burnout for the healthcare workforce, with particular attention to the occupational health of healthcare professionals.

The proposed study will be the very first of its kind and will therefore represent a pioneer effort that should provide important information for the design of future studies on a grander scale. The design combines the advantages of measurements under real life conditions with chronic exposure to actual shift work with the rigor and accuracy of laboratory assessments. The use of University of Chicago employees guarantees the feasibility of this approach. A follow up period of 3 years is consistent with job stability in this working environment. It is possible that the results of this University of Chicago study may not be fully generalizable to all shift workers but the PI believes that the study will provide a wealth of important information that is largely lacking at the present time because the roles of sleep duration versus circadian misalignment in the cardio-metabolic risk of shift work have only been examined using self-report and simple relatively insensitive end points. This research may be considered “translational” because it aims to test whether their laboratory findings on the intrinsic adverse cardio-metabolic effects of circadian misalignment are relevant to shift workers in the real world. The findings of this research are expected to greatly increase our understanding of physiologic tolerance to shift work, and provide the basis for the development of methods for the early detection of adverse health effects and coping strategies for the millions of Americans engaged in shift work.

The aim of the proposed study is to document the impact of H.R. 5178, the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (NSPA) enacted in November 2000, on hospital healthcare workers’ percutaneous injury rates. This study will focus on changes in occupational percutaneous injury (PI) rates in a network of U.S. hospitals during the transitional decade (1992-2004) leading up to and following the enactment of the NSPA. Changes in PI rates and types of injuries will be analyzed for regional variation, job categories, hospital types, hospital departments and specific devices. For comparative purposes, mucocutaneous exposure rates, which should not have been directly impacted by the NSPA, will be assessed for the same time frame. (The law addressed only sharps injuries, not mucocutaneous exposures.) This study has the potential to challenge current clinical practices and institutional policies by identifying critical barriers to full compliance with NSPA. Recommendations will be presented for enhanced compliance and more effective prevention policies.

Partnership to Improve Workplace Safety for In-Home Care Workers

This study will build the evidence necessary to advance and challenge existing paradigms for home care worker safety and well-being through innovative partnerships, design and testing of appropriate sexual harassment and workplace violence prevention interventions.

A Biomechanical Study of Work-Related Shoulder Disorder

The long-term goal of the research is to identify the important biomechanical mechanisms associated with rotator cuff injuries and subsequently evaluate prevention and treatment strategies that account for these mechanisms. The objective of this application is to identify the link between rotator cuff function and abnormal kinematics and proprioception. Based on previous work, our hypothesis is that diminished rotator cuff function leads to deficits in kinematics and proprioception, which may place the rotator cuff at an increased risk for extrinsic injury. They propose to extend their understanding of this relationship in a real world environment by studying dental hygienists at work, which is a population that is at a very high risk for repetitive motion shoulder injuries.